Click here to see my visit to Mangrove Creek Flower Farm: https://youtu.be/jbSxq37pyfw
Let’s look at a design using the Waratah as the statement flower in amongst the foliage’s and flowers discovered at Mangrove Creek Farm.
Things to gather:
- I found a very old very aged silver vintage jug which will be perfect for this design, but just whatever tickles you fancy will do.
- I’ve also gathered a few stems each of flannel flower aka as phylica, viburnums, tea tree, hellebores & a little pittosporum foliage.
If you are new to the sight of a Waratah, let me share a few interesting tip bits about this Australian native flower! Its botanical name is ‘Telopea’ speciosissima – meaning seen from afar or red flowering tree. The name comes from the Eora Aboriginal people, who were the original inhabitants of the Sydney area.
The tree generally grows to around 3 meters and although it looks like one flower its is in fact made up of many flowers all joined into one flower ranging in size from 6 to 15 cm or so. From what I can discover it was one of the first Australian plants to be cultivated in Europe.
As a floral designer this is a magnificent flower to incorporate into spring designing. The colours connect beautifully with most others of the season. Additionally, like it’s bigger brother the king protea, it’s an excellent lasting bloom. If you are lucky, when cut and placed into a vase, can last up to 6 months.
While I’m on the subject of king proteas and Waratahs, one might be an iconic South African plant, and the other an Australian plant, both belong to the Proteaceae family. It's an amazingly diverse family that includes the South African leucadendron’s and the Australian banksia. Proteas and Waratahs shared common ancestors back in Gondwana when Australia and South Africa were joined as part of the super continent in the south, some 200 to 300 million years ago.
The bloom of the protea has spectacular textured bracts surrounding a cone-shaped head of tubular flowers. The Waratah is very similar with a symmetrical head of tubular flowers framed by spectacular red bracts. Both plants also have similar leathery leaves.
They're crying out to be noticed and their unabashed appeals for attention are directed mainly at birds. As the bird seeks out the nectar, which is deep inside the Waratah flower, its head becomes dusted with pollen from the upper part of the flower. It takes that pollen from one Waratah plant to another and cross-pollinates another plant.
In the language of flowers, the Waratah represents strength, courage, healing and support. The Indigenous people's use of the flower has been written to say that by ingesting the early morning dew and flower essence, one will be given courage, strength, and help in aiding recovery from illness.
Thank you to Vania and Darryl at Mangrove Creek farm for your time is sharing what’s involved in growing these magnificent blooms! You can find Mangrove Creek at https://www.facebook.com/p/Mangrove-creek-flower-farm-100063906313346
and https://www.instagram.com/mangrove_creek
Also thankyou to New Zealand Bloom. They ship the blooms from here in NZ to a market near you.
https://www.nzbloom.com
https://www.instagram.com/newzealandbloom
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